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By No Means Easy: Responding to Conflict in Personal Life
“I’m glad we went through that process before he died,” I recently told my pastor. Jay had been speaking of the death of a long-time member who had participated in a number of church conflicts over the years. The process I referred to was a series of meetings with the individual to discuss the impact of letters he had sent during the past two years to the entire congregation on several contentious issues. These letters created various harms to individual church members as well as to the church family in general. In reflecting on the loss of Mr. M., I couldn’t help but feel that the meetings provided an avenue for church leadership to both express care for him and be open to listening to his positions and the concerns behind them.
Oct 26, 2009 Living, Correspondent:Lynette Parker, Religion
Day 3 at the 12th World Conference of the International Institute for Restorative Practices
From the 23 October Restorative Practices E-Forum by Laura Mirsky of the International Institute for Restorative Practices.
After welcoming the conference participants, IIRP president Ted Wachtel introduced Wilma Derksen, director, Victims’ Voice, Mennonite Central Committee, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Herself the mother of a murdered child, Derksen discussed the "victim/offender trauma bond,” explaining “why a violent crime has such catastrophic impact on victims and why restorative justice (RJ) looks different through the eyes of a crime victim.” Click here to read Derksen’s paper: Understanding Victims of Crime and Their Need to Deal with the Victim/Offender Trauma Bond.
St Rita's College Clayfield rocked by cheating scandal
From Tanya Chilcott's article in Courier-Mail:
A leading Brisbane private girls' school has been rocked by a cheating scandal after a group of students was caught just weeks before graduation.
St Rita's College principal Dale Morrow said the incident, the first of its kind in her eight years at the Clayfield school, had been "a very difficult" time for all involved.....
....It is understood one girl attained the answers from a teacher's computer and passed them on.Victim Support workers told to ignore political comments
From the article on 3news.co.nz:
Volunteers at a Victim Support conference this weekend were urged to ignore the "victims versus offenders" debate from politicians....
Director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment Kim Workman said this kind of "oppositional thinking" was counterproductive and unhelpful.
"We must reject any proposition that potentially divides us.
"Many of you work with both victims and offenders, in the areas of family violence, child abuse, restorative justice, and prisoner reintegration.
"Our success depends on our ability to work effectively within the justice system, across the board, in order to reduce victimisation."
Oct 23, 2009 Country:New Zealand, Practice, Victim
Day 2 at the 12th World Conference of the International Institute of Restorative Practices
From the 22 October E-Forum by Laura Mirsky of the International Institute of Restorative Practices.
After the morning welcome by IIRP president Ted Wachtel, Howard Zehr, restorative justice pioneer, professor of Restorative Justice, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, and author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice, spoke about the notion of restorative justice (RJ) as a calling. He said that we must, however, balance our idealism and enthusiasm for RJ by taking care of ourselves and each other to avoid burnout. We must also, he said, engage the community in building RJ into a true social movement. In addition, he emphasized that humility, respect, ambiguity and mystery, which allow space for the unexpected and for differing visions and perceptions to be expressed, are crucial for RJ. Click here to read Zehr’s paper: Restorative Justice? What’s That?
Oct 22, 2009 RJ City
Restorative justice and the story of Cain and Abel
from Ellen's entry on Fidgety Feet:
I'm taking a class in restorative justice, which I was interested in, but wished I could have taken it in-class with a certain professor at TUFW. I was thinking the online class wouldn't be as good.
I have learned so much in 6 lessons; it has made me read the Bible differently, understand some of the words and teachings of Jesus differently and it makes characteristics that I knew about God jump out of the pages of familiar stories. I feel like I am reading these for the first time!
The story of Cain and Abel. It's pretty short; Chapter 4 of Genesis. Cain kills his younger brother Abel, Cain is marked and has to roam the earth forever.Oct 22, 2009 Bible Study, Biblical
Restorative justice is a chance to heal, listen
From Mark Hare's column in Democrat and Chronicle:
Several days ago, I wrote about the demographic crisis in many city neighborhoods that is a breeding ground for violent crime. Despite a two-year drop in homicides and violent crime, there is trouble ahead if those neighborhoods are not restored.
That's where the idea of restorative justice comes in.
With the advent of harsher sentencing laws in the 1970s, coupled with increased poverty, huge numbers of young men were swept off city streets and into prison. Incarceration rates put stable marriages and families further out of reach, and led to even more poverty — with all that implies. Young men are still being incarcerated, and large numbers of parolees are being released back to the neighborhoods, but they are unprepared either for jobs or family life.
Partners in Restorative Initiatives, a 9-year-old local agency, could be part of the solution.Day 1 at the 12th World Conference of the International Institute of Restorative Practices
from the 21 October E-Forum by Laura Mirsky of the International Institute of Restorative Practices
Greetings, ... from day one of "Restoring Community in a Disconnected World, Part 2" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Hundreds of restorative practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and advocates from around the world have come together for three days to share their knowledge and achievements and to find support and advice from others doing similar work.
The IIRP is providing daily ... reports for those who aren't able to travel to Bethlehem to attend the conference. We will also be videotaping all of the plenary sessions and hope to provide video links to them in the coming months.
Different discipline for kids based on their race? Opponents call plan 2-tiered double standard, officials call it 'restorative'
from Drew Zahn's article in WorldNetDaily.com:
A school district in Arizona has come under fire after a newspaper columnist highlighted the district's newly adopted racial policy and called it a "two-tiered form of student discipline: one for black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else."
Arizona Republic columnist Doug MacEachern drew attention to a decision made by the Tucson Unified School District's board over the summer to adopt a "Post-Unitary Status Plan," which includes the goal of reducing suspensions and expulsions of minority students to reflect "no ethnic/racial disparities."
"TUSD principals and disciplinarians (assuming such creatures still exist) are being asked to set two standards of behavior for their students," MacEachern commented. "Some behavior will be met with strict penalties; some will not. It all depends on the color of the student's skin."
Coolstore fire inquiry in doubt
from Phil Taylor's article in New Zealand Herald:
There may be no independent inquiry into the Icepak Coolstore disaster that killed fireman Derek Lovell and injured seven colleagues.
But Mr Lovell's family and the injured firemen could be in line for a payment from the coolstore company, which has admitted breaching safety regulations.
Oct 21, 2009 Case:White Collar, Country:New Zealand, Other
